[Amnon]

I've seen Gemstone 3 on the list of newest MUDs added, and for some reason, something told me that if I look at the top 20 chart, I'll see that name somewhere in there... Guess what? I was right.

With 108 "In"s, I was quite surprised to find a MUD which was added... When, today? Yesterday? In a tie with MUDs who have been receiving entries since the begining of this month (Which will give them an advantage of 16 days!...

Does it sound weird to anyone else but me, that a commercial game such as Gemstone 3 would suddenly get so many votes in such a short time?

[Tavish]

Originally Posted by Does it sound weird to anyone else but me, that a commercial game such as Gemstone 3 would suddenly get so many votes in such a short time?

Each vote from commercial games count for two votes because they are better games and the people who play them love their games twice as much.  Which makes sense because people pay for them when they could be playing for free.

That or maybe this has something to do with it:

Gemstone III ad blurb:

Originally Posted by Played by hundreds of thousands of people worldwide...

[Terloch]

Uh, I hope the "each vote counts double" comment was sarcasm... As far as I know, there is no such weighting for commercial muds. And don't make blanket assumptions that a commercial game simply because they charge for their service is a better game, or that the players of games who do not pay to play love their game any less...

I would think that the jump in votes is due more to the size of the playerbase than anything else...

[Tavish]

Terloch:

Originally Posted by Uh, I hope the "each vote counts double" comment was sarcasm...

Yep, the entire post, except for the last few lines where I attempted to answer the question, was sarcasm.  Thought I would have a little fun with the witchhunting mentality of the question.  I get the "was that sarcasm?" question alot,  not sure if that means it was good or bad use of it. I will try my best to use sarcasm tags in the future, a good habit that I unfortunately have fallen out of.

[MelissaMeyer]

Originally Posted by (Amnon @ Jan. 18 2003,12:22) With 108 "In"s, I was quite surprised to find a MUD which was added... When, today? Yesterday? In a tie with MUDs who have been receiving entries since the begining of this month (Which will give them an advantage of 16 days!... Does it sound weird to anyone else but me, that a commercial game such as Gemstone 3 would suddenly get so many votes in such a short time?

Actuatually, we've been on Top Mud Sites before.  We held the third position for a couple months before Top Mud Sites experienced it's difficulties in December.

All I did was resubmit our information, and drop a note on our message boards that we were back up on Top Muds.  We still had the vote button on our site from our previous time.

Yes, we are a commercial MUD ... we also have the highest simultaneous usage of any text-based game I've seen.  That's likely the reason we jumped through the list so quickly.

(Actually, I was a little disappointed that the votes came so slowly, but that's gonna happen after the link button had been broken for so many week ... entirely my fault.)

I hope that helps resolve your concerns.  If you have any others, you may feel free to contact me.  I'll provide you with a free trial.  You can find out for yourself whether or not we're cheating.

Melissa
Producer, GemStone III

[Eternal]

That's one thing I love about Armageddon... we only have around fifty online at our busiest times and are free, yet we remain in the top 20, usually the top ten. No mention of this site is made anywhere except for little buttons on the homepage and board, yet there we are.

Dedication counts for a lot, and I guess if you're paying to play your game, then you're probably more dedicated than those games that have 1000+ people online who are only passing/powergaming.